Apple and Costco lead November response time tests

Apple Inc.’s e-commerce site posted the fastest Internet Explorer response time and Costco posted the fastest time in Firefox tests in November, says Compuware.

Apple.com produced the best Internet Explorer access time among 23 large web retailers tested in November, according to Compuware. Last month, the e-retailer posted an average Internet Explorer load time of 0.53 seconds. Costco.com posted the best Firefox response time with an average of 0.41 seconds.

Costco.com also finished in second place in Internet Explorer tests at 0.56 seconds, followed by Amway.com (1.31 seconds), Walmart.com (1.50) and Dell.com (1.54).

Apple.com finished second in last month’s Firefox response time tests with an average of 0.47 seconds. Dell.com (0.89) came in third, followed by Dell.com (0.89) and Amway.com (1.09).

The average large retailer’s high broadband response time for a shopper using Internet Explorer in November was 2.96 seconds, the Compuware study shows. The average Firefox response time among the same group of 23 retailers was 2.35 seconds.

Response time is the average time it takes to fully download a web site’s content.